


Take your hand and I go under

by Bob_the_bastard



Series: Keith hurt/comfort [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood, Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Hunk is a stress sponge, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) Needs a Hug, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Protective Hunk (Voltron), Protective Shiro (Voltron), Seizures, Sick Keith (Voltron), Team as Family, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:28:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27777661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bob_the_bastard/pseuds/Bob_the_bastard
Summary: A well intentioned search of the castle takes several quite negative turns.Hunk hates to see a teammate in pain.
Relationships: Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Allura & Hunk (Voltron), Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Keith hurt/comfort [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1183253
Comments: 18
Kudos: 110





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> How the hell does one title a fic? sell your soul? plagiarise? black market?  
> Keith & Hunk is criminally underwritten and Voltron did not take advantage of Keith being Galra enough,,, and thus this fic was born.

All the paladins had noticed Allura’s mood, undoubtedly a side-effect of living in close proximity to one another every day, it was a hard thing to not notice. 

Be it in the way she didn’t hold her head as high as she walked along the castle halls anymore, or the way her eyes lingered on the more nostalgic elements of the castle just long enough for her eyes to start to glisten, or any of the other many ways her grief made itself known. 

Hunk frowned, he supposed it was a special kind of torture to be constantly reminded of something you could never get back.

Be it the lions, the castle, the suffocating knowledge of being one of the only two people left of your species. Allura was surrounded by loss.

Hunk remembers the time after he’d lost his grandfather, that cloying hollow feeling he got whenever he went back into the house, only to find it silent of the low singing in the kitchen that had always been so present it had become almost its own part of the home.

He shuddered to think of how quiet the castle must seem to both Allura and Coran.

It was this chain of thought that had led him to said royal advisor, “I was just wondering if you might possibly have some Altean recipes somewhere?”

It had seemed as good a place as any to start. If Allura was missing Altea, Hunk couldn’t do much… but food, food he could do.

“I most certainly do lad!” Coran’s eager smile dropped into something smaller, somehow more sincere, “it’s a wonderfully kind thing you’re doing number two.”

The Altean continued at the yellow paladin’s small smile, “now, we best get looking my boy!”

***

Somehow, they’d ended up in one of the nearly completely abandoned halls in the castle. Hoping to find some sort of cupboard or shelf with the books Coran was adamant were hidden somewhere within the rooms of the castle.

The older man had one hand on the hand scanner to one of the many doors, and the other twirling his moustache, “It’s this one I’m sure!”

A chorus of groans came from behind him as he repeated what he had, so far, said every other time they’d entered a room.

“Now now paladins, no need for that.” He smiled as the door slid open. They all filed in after him.

***

“no offence to Coran’s powerful deductive skills,” Lance started in a hushed voice, “but I don’t think we’re gonna find and cookbooks in what is clearly a science lab.” 

Keith smiled gently, “maybe Altean cooking takes, like, ungodly amounts of precision.”

“Have you even tasted Coran’s food goo… If we can use that as a sample, I’m not sure how much excitement I can muster for more Altean food.” 

“I mean, precision doesn’t have to affect taste? Hunk barely ever weighs what he’s making.”

Lance laughed under his breath.

“and don’t let Coran hear you talk like that about the food goo, he might cry.”

The two of them had migrated to the other side of the room and were each rustling through a cabinet full of lab equipment, or, well… Altean lab equipment? Lance wasn’t sure whether Earth had all these bulbus chunks of glass or not, but they looked pretty similar? Kind of.

Maybe it wasn’t what they’d been looking for exactly, Lance thought, but it was kind of interesting how familiar some of the stuff looked, and how foreign everything else was.

Lance’s eyebrow rose slightly as he locked his eyes on a corked test tube, partially buried in all manner of other equipment which undoubtedly had several odd purposes apiece. Funnily enough it looked like one of the few unbroken objects left in the various storage compartments in the lab.

“you alright?” Keith’s voice came from just behind him. 

Lance turned to smile at the shorter boy, “I’m fine”

“Alright.” He said, “I’m pretty much done here, I’m gonna see what everyone’s doing over there.”

Lance nodded and turned back around, only partially aware of the quiet pad of footsteps behind him.

He reached his arm into the cupboard, fingers closing around cold glass. He tried to pull it out of the mess, but after a couple of unsuccessful yanks he resorted to try and clear the junk around it.

The reason for his not being able to draw the tube out became clear in a couple of seconds, a large, blocky contraption seemed to be locked around the base of the glass, Lance hummed in thought as he, more carefully this time, removed it from the chaos and bought it up closer to his eyes.

The tube was nothing special, well… apart from the weird as all hell thing at the end of it, and a small white label. The label might have said something, a long time ago that is, but the words had long since faded into time, with none of the past writings remaining.

Lance brought the tube up to his eyes, it was pretty easy to surmise that the chunk of blackish-bluish metal on the end could work as a stand, or… he tilted it in front of his head… something to protect the vials? Lance didn’t know.

He turned the vial over in his hands, his fingers slipped over the chilled glass and it fell to the ground. 

The sound of glass shattering was coupled by the clang of the stand against the castles metal floor.

Lance glared disdainfully at the broken vial, “of course.” He sighed, toeing at the glass. He rolled his eyes and kicked the rest of the mess under the cupboard.

He turned slowly toward the group and was relieved to see that apparently no one had heard the crash that’d seemed so loud to him.

***

Pidge smacked her hand into the side of the monitor in front of her again and swore as the glitching screen in front of her flickered off again.

“goddamned old Altean tech-“ She turned slowly, feeling Coran’s disapproving stare on the back of her head and offering an apologetic smile as penance.

Hacking into corrupted files was not fun at all… especially when said files weren’t built to withstand deterioration as best they could like other ones in the castle.

“try again Pidge.” Pidge fought to roll her eyes at Shiro, what did he think she was trying to do!

She tightened her lips as the computer granted her access, of course, apparently her spite and Shiro’s stating the obvious had united to form a Voltron of its own.

She propped her head up on her hand and stared despondently at the now active screen in front of her. 

Coran gasped behind her, nudging her out of the way to get a closer look at the monitor.

“Coran?” Shiro sent a questioning glance to Pidge, she shrugged at him in answer.

“They’re experiments.”

“Thank you for that horrifically vague explanation Coran”

“Why is that worrying Coran?” The black paladin asked. Pidge was inclined to agree, they were in a lab.

“These experiments… I don’t recognise them, and they aren’t on record. Which can only mean they were conducted outside of Alfor’s jurisdiction.”

Pidge looked up at Coran’s uncharacteristically grim face as he started to type hurriedly on the keyboard.

“They were…” he sighed and shut his eyes tightly, “They were conducting experiments on Galran prisoners.”

***

Hunk caught Keith’s eye from across the room, sending a beckoning look over to the red paladin. Hunk hadn’t really found any opportunity to bond with Keith, in his opinion there wasn’t really anyone else on the castleship he was more different to, that is, until several quintants ago.

Hunk had woken up harshly, jolting against his mattress as he drew in harsh, panting breaths. He shut his eyes tightly against the tears for a moment, then pulled himself out of bed and headed towards the kitchen. He wasn’t going to get back to sleep after that.

He found Keith on his way there. the boy’s gait was stilted and slow, concern overpowered the remnants of fear and Immediately, Hunk gripped his hands to the smaller boy’s shoulders and searched his face.

Keith’s eyes widened at the yellow paladin’s sudden appearance and he ducked his head down to face to floor.

“Hey man, what are you doing up?” The question was silly, Hunk knew that, Everyone on the castle was aware of Keith’s frankly awful sleeping habits and since Shiro had banned the training rooms at night -having found out how much time the red paladin had been spending in there- it was commonplace to hear Keith pacing the corridors.

Hunk had seen the tears though. And he refused to let Keith go on walking along without even trying to help him first. He stepped in front of the red paladin, both hands lightly gripping the other’s shoulders.

The smaller boy shuddered under Hunk’s gaze, “I’m fine.”

Hunk just sighed in response, pulling the other into a hug. He felt Keith tense, drawing in a sharp breath before he relaxed into the yellow paladin’s warm embrace.

“Let’s head to the kitchen huh?” Hunk said, chin balanced on Keith’s head.

He felt more than heard a small hum of acquiescence against his chest and smiled into the darkened halls of the castle. 

They set off toward the kitchen.

Hunk had come across an adjoining room to the lab they’d been in before. The door had been almost hidden, having been the same colour as the rest of the castle with the only thing marking its presence being the slightly darker seam of the door.

He’d immediately begun to trace his fingers along the small indentations in the wall, frowning as he searched the surrounding area for any sign of a switch or lever.

He gasped as the door slid away from the wall. Hunk leant forward to peer into the small room on the other side.

A small voice rose from behind him, “huh.” Hunk turned to face the red paladin who’d apparently snuck up on him whilst trying to open the door. He took a brief moment to notice the pale pallor of the boy’s face, brow furrowing in concern before being distracted by his rising anxiety.

“It’s odd right? Weirdly hidden.” Hunk squinted his eyes, “Why would they hide a room.” He turned back to face the darkened gap in the wall.

Keith stayed silent at his side, a look of confusion on his face, he lifted his hand to circle Hunks wrist, “maybe Coran knows something about it.”

“We could ask him?” Hunk locked eyes with the other boy.

They started to walk into the room.

***

“Experiments on the Galra?” Shiro repeated, “Who in the castle would do that?” 

Pidge crossed her arms over her chest, “More importantly, what did they find?”

Shiro sent an alarmed look her way.

“Not to use it! God no.” She said, “I mean, should we be worried about, well, y’know? Our resident Galra teammate?”

Coran continued to type hurriedly against the keyboard, “I shouldn’t have thought so number five, these notes make it seem like their-“ He paused for a moment, “experiments, were more focused on what kind of gaseous elements could incapacitate the empire. This room isn’t vacuum sealed, anything remaining would have become an issue quite a while before now.”

Pidge breathed out a shaky sigh, and was shocked to find her eyes feeling dewy, “I don’t like this.”

Lances spoke up from behind her, “Don’t like what Pidgeon? me being so far away for so long.” Lance had apparently sauntered over as they’d been talking.

Shiro’s eyes trailed over to where Keith and Hunk had been stood a moment before, “right,” He said, “I’m going to check on the others.”

***

The two boys looked dubiously around the room. It was large and similar to the rest of the castle in terms of its colour and general build, that was as far as the similarities went. There were very few defining features of the room besides the fact that three of the four walls were slashed by a metal table, circling around the room. The table had dozens of drawers lining its underside and was covered in haphazardly strewn boxes. What had caught the boys’ attention more than this, however, was the metal slab in the middle of the room, which shared an uncomfortable resemblance to the tables they’d experienced being strapped to whilst within Shiro’s memories during the mind meld. 

Hunk stared at the thing anxiously, “oh god, that doesn’t look good.”

“What do you think they did in here?”

“Experiments,” Hunk whimpered. “Oh god, experiments on humans! What if the Alteans actually hate us!”

“Hey, don’t worry.” Keith touched a palm to Hunks shoulder, “First of all, we’re the- well, you’re the first humans that have met the Alteans. Second of all, I’m not convinced Coran could accidentally hurt a fly without apologising.” 

Hunk wrung his hands together, “All the same, I think we should go back and ask Coran about this room.

Keith hummed absentmindedly, then headed off toward the closest part of the circling table.

“Yes Keith, that’s exactly what I meant by let’s leave.” Hunks brow furrowed at Keith’s lack of response. “Keith?” He took a step toward the smaller boy. The red paladin stumbled as he walked, only just catching himself on the surface of the table, Hunk wasn’t aware he was moving until he’d felt himself hold onto Keith’s upper arm.

“Hunk?” Keith’s voice was quiet, his eyes unfocussed and glassy, “I don’t…” his breath stuttered in his throat, “I don’t know where I am.” Hunks breath quickened as he looked over the other boys lolling head, his eyes shuddering as he struggled to keep them open. “I don’t know where I am.” 

Hunk lifted his other hand to Keith’s cheek to support his head, he searched Keith’s face for anything suggesting a trace of the awareness the boy had had mere minutes before.

Hunk let out a breathy sob as Keith fell completely limp into his chest, “Shiro!”

***

Very few things -bar the obvious- rattled Shiro anymore. Seeing his brother limp in his teammates arms he could now confidently say, was one of them. 

“Hunk what happened?” Shiro stood on the other side of Keith, eyes matching Hunks in wide eyed panic. he guided the red paladin’s prone body to the floor. 

Hunk fell to his knees next to his teammates, frightened tears making their slow trail down his face

Shiro had manoeuvred Keith’s head onto his lap, the boy’s eyes were slit, but open. Shiro could see his pupils darting quickly from side to side. His breathing was rapid and shallow as he convulsed weakly in Shiro’s arms. Shiro’s hands hovered awkwardly, as if trying to figure out where they’d be of most use.

Panic sharpened his features as he threaded his fingers through his younger brother’s hair, the other hand clutching tightly to his shoulder, trying to hold him still, “Hunk please,” he pleaded, the older man’s voice cracked as he spoke.

“I don’t- I don’t know… he was fine a minute ago.” Hunk was holding Keith’s hand tightly, “Shiro it was so quick.” He looked up at the black paladin, panicked eyes focused on Shiro. “He said he didn’t know where he was.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which, Shiro needs a nap, Lance needs a hug, Keith needs a pod and Hunk needs a manual on how to care for a group of unpredictable teammates.

Shiro hadn’t moved his hand from it’s position stroking Keith’s hair since they’d gotten to the medbay, he wasn’t sure how long it’d been since they’d gotten there; he didn’t think he cared. He knew, dimly, that it had been a while since he’d let his eyes focus. 

The memory of bringing Keith to the medbay was hazy with adrenaline. He could remember the teams cries of concern as he ran with his little brother in his arms, and Hunk falling behind to quickly catch Coran up on what had happened. Not much else was very clear.

Apart from the aggressive clarity of when Keith’s seizing had stopped. Halfway to the medbay his brother had fallen completely limp in his arms. Somehow, Shiro had managed to run faster.

He shut his eyes lightly, then bought his free hand up to his eyes and ground his palm into one, then the other, hard.

He peeked around the prosthetic, pointedly looking a few inches left of Keith’s face, still not focusing. He was somewhat aware of how childish it must look; he couldn’t bring himself to mind.

He was semi-aware of Coran bustling around behind him, undoubtedly being more useful than himself.

Earlier, when Coran had deemed Keith relatively steady, Pidge had reached over and gently pressed the red paladin’s still half-open eyelids shut. 

Shiro looked down onto those closed eyelids and saw the beginning of bruising around both Keith’s eyes. He looked grey, slightly yellow, and that alongside the bluish tinge to his lips had Shiro spiralling again until he focused on the rise and fall of his brother’s chest. He looked dead.

God, he wanted to cry. But his eyes were too heavy, too scratchy and dry to even try and summon anymore tears. He hadn’t had an adrenaline drop this bad in a long while. He hadn’t been eager to experience it again.

“Shiro?” Lance’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet.

The black paladin turned his head, levelling his eyes with the younger boy, raising his eyebrows questioningly, “What’s wrong Lance?”

Lance looked up over Shiro’s head, at Coran. He walked over to the advisor. Shiro could hear hushed mumbling from the duo, he couldn’t bring himself to even try to listen in.

***

Pidge wasn’t freaking out. Well, that was almost true. She was working hard to level her expression from the outside, inside was a different story.

Sure, it wasn’t the first time Keith had gotten hurt, quite the contrary in fact. The red paladin had shown himself to have quite a penchant for finding himself in imminently imposing danger.

But it was so quick. And Hunk’s panicked rambling about what had happened was doing nothing to quell her own anxiety about the situation.

Pidge hated the medbay on a good day.

Her and Lance had run into the room after Shiro had lain Keith on one of the cots. He was so still, if not for the stuttered rise and fall of his chest, Pidge thought he could’ve been dead.

She could still feel on her fingertips how cold his skin had been when she’d gently pressed his eyelids down.

Pidge cringed and pressed her fingers against her thumb, hard, to dispel the phantom chill that had ran across them.

Lance, Hunk and herself had been told there wasn’t much to do to help until Coran knew what they were dealing with, so they had left to ‘continue as normal’ as Coran had said it. She gritted her teeth in sudden anger, how the hell did he expect them to just carry on as if their teammate hadn’t collapsed.

It didn’t take a genius to link the Galran experiments and Keith getting sick. It did lend a whole new issue however, if this illness had been spurred by covert operations ten thousand years ago, chances of there being a cohesive explanation for what was happening to Keith were pretty much nil. Which meant finding a way to solve it would be even more troublesome.

“I smashed a test tube.” Pidges head shot up toward Lance’s voice, she could see Hunk doing the same in her peripheral. “Not on purpose!” he defended. His hands wrung quickly in his lap and he had yet to meet either of their gazes.

“What do you mean?” Hunks voice was unsure and unaccusatory. Lance finally looked up and met Hunks questioning gaze, he seemed to calm slightly.

“There was this fancy looking test tube thing,” He seemed to think a moment, “It was corked and had this weird stand?” He furrowed his eyebrows, “Or, at least, I think it was a stand? But it fell on the floor and smashed.”

Pidge frowned, “And you think that breaking it is what did… this, to Keith?”

“Yes.”

***

Coran was a lot more worried about number four than he’d let Shiro know, the poor black paladin had looked moments from collapse and there was nothing to be done until Coran figured out what, exactly, was wrong with the younger boy. So, Coran had surmised, there’d been no point in worrying the boy further.

But Coran didn’t know what to do, it was barely heard of. He forced a tight humourless smile toward the wall. Of course, he thought, when something was incredibly important, incredibly detrimental. He could do nothing.

If only he had checked the room beforehand, he should have been doing that anyway! Who knows what could have accumulated within the castle walls in the ten thousand years the castle had lain unprotected.

He busied himself by looking over Keith’s diagnostics: his heartbeat was quick, but not irregular, as it had been when they’d first looked over him. One other thing was concerning Coran, the lack of oxygen his body was using, it certainly explained the yellowy pallor to his skin; Pidge had run him through various Human ailments earlier in their journey. But the young girl’s knowledge was limited in the field of medicine and she’d failed to tell him what to do in this situation.

Coran turned as he heard Lance’s voice calling for Shiro. He locked eyes with the blue paladin and the young boy walked toward the advisor.

“I think this is my fault.” Lance’s voice was hushed, his gaze aimed downward. 

Coran frowned, “why would you think that lad?” He ducked his head to catch the boy’s eyes, “I can promise you now that it’s not.”

“I smashed a test tube,” he finally met the older man’s eyes, “in the lab, I mean. I found a sealed glass in a cupboard and dropped it.” He started to wring his hands, “and, I mean, that’s not a coincidence, right? That this happened, like, right after. So- I mean… that makes sense, no?”

Coran lifted his hands up to the boy’s shoulders, “Lance, I need you to calm down.” Coran’s face harboured an uncharacteristically grave expression, “and besides, perhaps what you found could help us with solving our predicament?”

Coran drew the blue paladin into a swift, tight hug before walking off with him back towards the lab.

***

Hunk hadn’t realised he’d been dozing off until he jolted awake to the sound of the castle medbay alarms.

He looked around for a second, slightly dazed by the harsh awakening, before locking eyes with Pidge as they each began to head toward the medbay.

Hunk got there before Pidge. The first thing he say upon entering the room was the look on Shiro’s face, a mix of shock and horrible, horrible emptiness as he hovered anxiously at Keith’s side.

It was only then Hunk noticed the red paladin. He almost wished he hadn’t.

Keith’s seizing had started again, far more violently than before. More aggressive than the yellow paladin thought the smaller boy’s prone body should be capable of. He stood, motionless, looking at the boy as he jolted horrifically against the bed; Hunk struggled to concentrate as he watched Keith’s limbs spasm and contract.

He snapped out of his and Shiro’s shared panic due to both Pidge’s running into him and the irony tang of blood reaching his nose.

“holy crap!” Pidge hadn’t had much more of a reaction upon entering the room and had instead ran over to the red and black paladin, moving the pillow back under Keith’s head from where it had fallen to the floor.

Hunk shook his head sharply, reminding himself to panic later as he swallowed a sob. He walked over to his teammates and nearly abandoned his newly adopted, ‘act now, cry later’ mantra as he saw the blood coating Keith’s face. It fell in thick rivulets from his eyes, a juddering trail heading to the sides of his face, it fell unevenly as his head jolted and seized. More bloody trails dripped from his nose and ears.

Hunk had frozen again, he struggled to keep breathing through the thick, cloying smell of blood.

He could see Pidge starting to panic herself as she sought for something else to do to help. Hunk shut his eyes and sucked in a harsh breath. He could dimly hear the medbay doors slide open as Coran and Lance sprinted into the room. 

Hunk crossed over to the other side of the bed, content with the fact he’d be of more use trying to calm Shiro from his panic induced catatonia. He led the black paladin out of the newly hectic medbay and into the hallway.

Swallowing back the ache in the back of his throat, Hunk led Shiro toward his bunk. He didn’t know how much longer he would be able to hold back his tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna go ahead and pretend that I haven't pretty much ignored Allura's existence in this chapter... I promise she'll turn up at some point.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I mean... Hunk and Shiro chat, someone needs to give Keith a cookie or something and Coran is incredibly overworked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year everyone!

Pidge had never felt more grateful to have Coran with them. The older man was flitting around the room like a panicked butterfly, muttering and examining all manner of jars and vials as he moved.

She looked back over at Keith. He hadn’t ceased in his seizing, if anything it had gotten more aggressive and frequent. His back arched, again, taut as a bowstring while seemingly endless streams of blood ran from eyes, ears and mouth.

Pidge looked down at Keith’s face; despite his eyes being shut tight against it, blood still beaded in his eyelashes until finally pooling in to join the rest of it.

Pidge could tell by the furrow in his brow that Keith was still aware enough to hurt. The painful ball in her throat wouldn’t let her talk so she resolved to move a shaking hand to his hair and smooth it down. She wasn’t sure he was coherent enough to process the feeling. Part of it, she supposed, was comforting herself with the monotonous motion.

She wanted him to know she was there. 

Previous hurts had led the team to the crucial conclusion of just how important it was that Keith know they hadn’t left him, that he wasn’t on his own.

Coran seemed to come to a decision and ran the short distance back to the red and green paladins, a small syringe in hand. 

“Hold his arm still.” 

Pidge obeyed, pushing down on the arm closest to her, one hand on his wrist, the other against his bicep. Coran spent a second looking at Keith’s arm, then the weirdly blue medicine in hand before sliding the thin needle into the crook of the red paladin’s elbow and pressing down on the plunger.

Keith’s tremors became calmer, then more infrequent, before stopping entirely. The boy slumped bonelessly onto the examination table. 

Coran let out a heavy sigh and stared at Pidge, before looking around the rest of the room, “where did everyone else go?”

“Hunk took Shiro to his bunk and Lance went after Allura.” Pidge felt eeirily calm, still smoothing down Keith’s hair as she spoke, “Shiro seemed pretty panicked and I don’t know why Allura left-“ she stalled as she struggled to find anything else to add. 

Keith shuddered beneath her palm, she lifted her hand quickly and looked down at him. She cringed at the gore still coating his face.

His voice was hoarse and pained, “Ka-“ He struggled to get his arms beneath him, eyes still shut tightly.

Coran rushed to gently push him back down onto the table, “Now now lad, stay calm.” The older man looked down at Keith with concerned eyes softened with affection, “We’ll get you feeling as right as rain in no time.”

Keith didn’t stop trying to manoeuvre himself up, “Shi-“ His voice broke off again, a breathy sob escaping instead, “I don’t- Kashi?”

Pidge sought out Keith’s hand with her own, “Shiro’s not here at the moment Keith. But you’ll see him soon, don’t worry.”

“I want Shiro, I don’t-“ He slumped down, he tossed his head from side to side, features growing more and more pained.

Keith’s throat worked and Coran deftly moved him onto one side as he began to gag and retch up more blood. Coran looked up at Pidge, eyes wide and face pale, “Pod, now.”

***

“He’ll be fine Shiro. He has to be fine, it’s Keith!” Shiro could assume that Hunk’s panicked ramblings had been repeating the same thing for a while now, he didn’t really care. 

Progress he supposed; he’d gone from not hearing Hunk at all to consciously choosing not to listen. God, he was a crap leader.

He pinched his own wrist tightly, “I’m sorry Hunk.”

“what?” Hunk looked almost hurt, “Shiro man, you have nothing to be sorry for.” The younger boy had sat himself down next to Shiro on the bunk, finally ceasing his pacing. 

“I mean- it makes sense you’re freaking out, you and Keith are like brothers.” Hunk sighed, wrapping an arm around the black paladin, “You really need to stop beating yourself up.”

Shiro braced his elbows on his knees and buried his head into his hands, “I don’t think- I can’t see any of you get hurt Hunk, it kills me to not be able to help you.” He chuckled darkly, “I keep thinking I’m back there.” 

Shiro didn’t know whether it was the exhaustion, the fact he hadn’t completely come back to himself, or both leading him to spill his guts to Hunk.

There was a certain calm about telling it to someone other than Keith. “Death was certain Hunk. When I fought someone in the arena, they were either dead by the end or not far from it. There was only one-“ he faltered, continuing in a poor imitation of normality, “winner.” 

He didn’t want to look at Hunk, so he didn’t, “I see you all hurt, and I can’t help but see you as being already gone.” His jaw tensed, “and I try to stop it but I can’t, because I’m not- I’m fine, which means- “ He swallowed back a sob, “It means you’re not fine.”

Hunk sat motionless, “I’m so sorry Shiro, none of us-“ He pulled the older man into a hug, “we didn’t see you hurting and I’m sorry.” Hunk could feel tears slipping down his cheeks and ignored the dampness on his shoulder where Shiro had buried his head into his shoulder.

***

“The toxin was eating at his organs.” Coran stood infront of Allura, Lance and Pidge. “He’s in a pod now, it’ll heal the damage caused by it, but it won’t get rid of the poison as a whole, only reset the damage caused by it thus far.” He looked at Allura, “Did you find anything on a solution?”

Seeing the other’s confused glances Allura spoke, “Coran sent me some information he and Lance found on the test-tube to search up on our databases to see if I could find a possible cure.” She let out a shuddery breath, “I found nothing.”

“I mean-“ Lance started, “We have time? No? we can just heal any damage it causes in the pod when we need to until we find something to help?”

“I’m afraid not my boy. You are weakened after coming out of the pods -hence needing a recovery period- if Keith’s immune system is not running properly the toxin will work quicker and undoubtedly do more damage.”

“So, the pods are more of a temporary thing.” Pidge said, “But couldn’t we leave him in cryostasis until we find something to help?”

Allura spoke this time, “We don’t know how this… toxin, will interact with the cryopods. We could very well put Keith in a Pod for an extended period and the toxin will work faster or be even more detrimental to Keith’s health.”

Hunk walked into the bridge at that point, “Shiro’s asleep.” He said. Lance smiled at the larger boy; it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Did you find any information at all?” Pidge said disbelievingly to Coran, “I mean, if we find what the toxin is made up from, or well, what exactly it’s doing, maybe we could ask part of the coalition for help?”

Coran merely nodded and beckoned her toward one of the monitors, Lance followed behind her.

Allura walked toward Hunk, he struggled to discern what she was thinking from her expression.

“Hello Hunk.”

“Hi Princess,” He paused, staring at her, “Can I… help with anything?”

She sighed, “I wanted to say thank you. Coran told me about how you planned to cook for me, that was incredibly thoughtful of you.” She looked away, unsuccessfully attempting to hide the sudden dewy look in her eyes. She sniffed, “I remember some of the more, ah, formal dinners served at the castle. Perhaps we could cook them together some time?”

Hunk practically beamed, “I would love to.”

***

Shiro had woken up and almost automatically headed toward the medbay.

The beginnings of embarrassment had coiled in his stomach, a sickening, writhing mess. At least it was Hunk he’d talked to, he thought, Hunk was the teams go-to-guy for unloading. If the rest of the team could talk to the yellow paladin, couldn’t he? He should probably talk to Hunk about the stress of talking on the other’s problems.

He was concerned to see Keith in a pod once he arrived, what had happened? Maybe they’d figured out what was wrong? He prayed for the latter.

He heard the shrill beeping of the release sequence and sprinted toward the pod.

Shiro caught Keith in his arms as he fell, limp, toward the floor.

The black paladin was concerned to see Keith had been released still unconscious, not unheard of, but concerning nonetheless.

Any worry evaporated as he felt his brother shift in his arms, “Hey buddy, you with me?”

“Shiro?” Keith’s voice was weary and Shiro shut his eyes in sheer relief.

“I’m here otouto, I’m here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this far aha. kudos and Comments spark much joy. I have a Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/bob-the-bastard where I now post my chapter updates aha

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look,,, only two years since I've posted, oops. I fully intend to be relatively consistent from now on, well... consistent for me, roughly translating to, I will write, but am very slow at doing so.


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